Here it is the 64th version of the Weekly Gamefront Network News Update, the news part of the update covers the news side of the Network and the Gamefront Main site over the past week. There has been a fair bit of news from the Main site including a lot of trailers, reviews, previews and a lot more, with a lot of interesting articles this week. However you can find more news from the main Gamefront site - Here

We would love to hear any suggestions that you have; if you see something that you would like to be added to the Weekly Network Update, or you have any suggestions that you think may improve the Network Update then simply drop me an email at Danny[at]filefront[dot]com (please put "Network Update" as the subject though ).

Also If you like the Network Update please feel free write a comment as I would love to hear any critism, or support (constructive though please as this is the only way that I know how good or bad the insider is and it would help me to improve this further).

Veteran file hosting site FilePlanet is being shuttered by parent site IGN, after a nearly 13 year run. Though it was quietly announced in April 2012 that Fileplanet would be archived, it remained unclear whether the site would continue to offer services. We reached out to IGN for comment, and today they have confirmed that the site will eventually be taken down.

“We have decided to archive FilePlanet and will eventually stop operating the site,” IGN publisher Peer Schneider told Game Front. “A lot of things have changed over the last decade. A standalone site for downloads of videos, demos, or patches made perfect sense back then, but content delivery is much more integrated now. We believe that the idea of a single-purpose PC download site like FilePlanet is one that, unfortunately, has passed. We decided to deemphasize the site last year and double down on other opportunities. We’ll of course continue to run our beta program and game giveaways through IGN and GameSpy – and we’re thinking of ways to continue to help support the modding communities as well.”

One of the first big file hosting sites during the waning days of Web 1.0 (along with FileLeech, now Game Front), Fileplanet was launched on May 6, 1999 by Gamespy, primarily to serve the then-rampant Quake 2 community; IGN Purchased Gamespy in 2004 and managed the site through several redesigns. Near the end of April, 2012, a banner was added along the top of the Fileplanet homepage hinting at the decision to close it down: “Note: FilePlanet is no longer being updated and is in the process of being archived.”

Though this has got to be a serious inconvenience for those who have long stored their files on FilePlanet, we at Game Front are happy to confirm that we do and will continue to host hundreds of thousands of patches, demos and yes, mods. Registration is free.

Our thoughts naturally go out to the FilePlanet staff who might be losing their jobs in the wake of this decision. Knowing how tough the economic climate is, we sincerely wish them all the best of luck.

***Updated***
Game Front reached out to IGN for additional comment on the closing of FilePlanet, specifically regarding the eventual fate of files stored on the site, and of the employees assigned to run it. IGN states that mass layoffs are not going to ensue. “Everyone who worked at FilePlanet is now working on other projects,” they said, “or left the company earlier this year.” That’s great news, and honestly, is nice to know considering how rough it is out there. But what happens to the files when they stop operating the site? “While the site will no longer be updated,” IGN told us, “for now users can still use the site as a repository of file content. If/when we remove all site content completely, we’ll be sure to communicate that to users before it happens.”

According to The Verge, Microsoft is allegedly planning to launch a $99 Xbox console package with a monthly subscription as early as next week.

For the $99 buy-in fee and a two-year contract for a $15 monthly fee, consumers will receive a 4GB Xbox 360 with a Kinect sensor. The two-year subscription will also provide access to the Xbox Live Gold service and possibly some additional streaming content from cable providers or sports package providers. Of course, a contract termination fee will keep you shackled to your two-year commitment.

$15 a month for two years, plus the $99 buy-in, comes out to a total cost of $459. Buying the bundle now and getting the cheapest two-year Xbox Live Gold option comes out to $299.00 + $120 = $420, so there’s little difference in overall cost, but a big difference in how much needs to be paid upfront.

Before Billionare Gabe Newell was fabulously wealthy thanks to having co-founded Valve, he was a lowly, less obscenely rich Microsoft employee who worked for Bill’s house for 13 years. When he left to found Valve, he created what, as the recently leaked Valve employee handbook suggests, appears to be a company that is essentially the perfect employer (if you’re a genius level enough to even qualify). Bloomberg talked to Newell about Valve’s corporate culture, among other things, but perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of the interview, as Kotaku noted, is the fact that Newell’s decision to leave Microsoft was inspired by the Internet’s first enormous time-sucking gaming phenomenon that could get you fired if your boss found you playing.

Yes, Doom is the reason we have Portal. But it isn’t for the cash-in-on-a-trend reasons you might be assuming. It had a little to do with an examination of Windows market share. “At Microsoft, we had very little visibility into the actions of our customers,” newell said. “You know how a lot of computers came with Microsoft Office pre-installed? There was concern among people who were working on Microsoft Office that people would buy computers and reformat their hard drives and install MS-DOS instead of Windows. So said well, let’s go look at what our customers have on their PCs. We weren’t going to just ask them. It was a really expensive thing to do. The good news that came out of that was that I think at the time, 20 million people in the U.S. were using Windows.”

That’s a giant number of people – I remember when the transition to GUI interface really set in and even then it was still kind of a shiny new novelty. 20 million people must have sent their jaws dropping to the floor. Until, that is, they looked at the rest of their data. “[W]hat was so shocking to me”, Newell continued, “was that Windows was the second highest usage application in the U.S. The number one application was Doom“. Yes, you read that right. Americans really were wasting as much time as their bosses said they were.

The decline of Star Wars: The Old Republic is greatly exaggerated by a trigger-happy Internet eager to claim that its destiny is to fail, BioWare says. So everybody chill out.

Speaking with Rock Paper Shotgun, SWTOR lead designer Daniel Erickson said that players are heading back to the Old Republic universe now that BioWare is pumping in new content with Patch 1.2, and that people forecasting the death of the MMO are likely as clumsy as they are stupid.

“Although the Internet loves to pronounce the doom of all things, what we’re seeing is a huge increase in activity with [update] 1.2 as people return to see all of the new content,” said Erickson. “The community has generally been excited about the direction the game is going as we finish up our last must-have quality of life features (group finder, etc) and can start concentrating full-time on creative things like the world events.”

The rest of the interview discusses something of the learning curve with which BioWare has been dealing in building SWTOR. It found players were burning through story content much faster than anticipated because players were spending more time playing than anticipated. Erickson also said it found success with things like the Rakghoul Plague outbreak, and that BioWare had to shift gears and dump more resources into working on PvP after the SWTOR beta because players were enjoying it so much.

Black Ops 2 was only revealed a couple days ago, yet it’s already breaking records. Amazon has revealed that day one pre-orders for this sequel were three times higher than those achieved by the original Black Ops in 2010.

Amazon UK’s video games manager Graham Chambers said:

“Set to be one of the biggest games of the year, it’s great to see so much enthusiasm and anticipation for Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

“Bolder and better than before and with everything from a futuristic storyline through to single player mode, Zombies and multiplayer, Black Ops II promises something Call of Duty fans have never seen before.”

We’ve got the first reveal trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops II, which is indeed set in the future and which has players apparently battling “Terrorist Skynet,” as our own Ben Richardson put it.

Treyarch has pushed the envelope of set pieces by adding a bit where players will fight on horseback, it seems. Technologically superior enemies never expect horses. And it sounds as though robots are going to come up kind of often. There’s also the Los Angeles on fire bit we saw earlier.

If you were planning on tuning in to the NBA Playoffs to see the Black Ops II trailer, Activision’s Dan Amrich says you should still do so, because there will be EVEN MOAR Black Ops II revealed there.

Yesterday the Internet asploded when Redditers discovered proof in the upcoming issue of PC Gamer’s UK edition. That’s a big deal: Company of Heroes was highly acclaimed when it dropped, but it’s been 6 years. We’ve seen something like 400 Call of Duty games in the intervening years. So we’re rightfully excited.

Alas. PC Gamer is playing things close to the vest until the issue comes out. However, they have teased some of the details from their article in a post earlier. In short, expect World War 2, and some of the bleakest moments from the eastern front:

It’s set on the Russian front. You control the Soviets in their fight to repel the invading Nazi force.

Snow plays a major part on the battlefield.

The cover system has been revamped.

The game is due out 2013.

I’m definitely excited about this one everyone. What about you? Is this been there/done that territory, or can they make the Russian campaign fresh again? Let us know in comments.

Shogun 2: Total War developer Creative Assembly is working on some kind of Alien title. That’s about all we knew about it, unfortunately: the developer is hiring for some kind of Alien thing, and that’s about it. But new developments suggest the game will not only be made for current-generation hardware, it’s also possibly being amped up for the next generation as well.

That’s according to a job ad posted on Creative Assembly’s website, which notes that it’s looking for programmers who can handle multiplayer and gameplay on both current and future-generation hardware. It suggests that the Alien game will be compatible with both sets of consoles — although it’s by no means definitive.

The ad is looking for a programmer but it doesn’t state outright that the project for which the programmer would be hired would solely be the Alien game. In fact, the job ad looks to me to be a little more long-term. Surely the programmer would work on Alien, since that’s Creative Assembly’s next big thing, but that doesn’t mean that the “next generation” the ad refers to is for the same game, necessarily. The next generation of hardware is expected to be announced relatively soon — so whatever Creative Assembly works on after Alien is probably going to land there.

Still, it’s an evocative situation, and it’s by no means unheard-of for a game to launch on two generations of consoles at once as one is winding down and the other is ramping up. Alien may well launch between the two and find itself pulling double-duty, and so will this particular programmer.

Origin, EA’s digital distribution platform that seeks to rival Steam, is approaching its first birthday, and EA would like to know how you feel about it. The company is seeking feedback concerning your favorite of Origin’s features, as well as a feature you’d like to see added or improved upon.

EA will also be hosting a live Q&A with Origin Creative Director Robert Kissinger and Product Manager Mike Lewis on Tuesday, May 8 at 10:00 a.m. PST.

Valve’s Gabe Newell made his thoughts on Origin pretty clear when he said, “I don’t think they’re doing anything super-well yet,” and, “They have a lot of work to do to get to where they need to be and where I as a customer would want them to be.”

Several weeks ago, Devin Connors over at Tom’s Hardware broke the rumor that Bethesda would be announcing an Elder Scrolls MMO in May. That rumor is true. This morning, Bethesda has officially announced Elder Scrolls Online. The new MMO will be playable on Mac and PC. Additional details about the game will be unveiled in the latest issue of Game informer (yeah, we know…); Bethesda was very coy in their official press statement. What we know so far is therefore very much nothing more than rumor. However, two additional potential details were revealed when the rumors of Elder Scrolls Online first broke, neither of which have been debunked:

* The game is to be set during the Second Era, or about 1,000 year prior to Skyrim.
* There will apparently be 3 playable factions, each of which is represented by different beast. (This might be suggested by the three dragons swallowing one another’s tails in the image above.)

An exploration of the second era, which sees the fall of the Cyrodilic Empire and ends with the establishment of the Septim dynasty, would allow for a huge amount of story – assuming those rumors also pan out. For now, we do wonder if this means that the next single player Elder Scrolls game will be for consoles only, or if they’re even going to devote resources to future single player games – the precedent established by World of Warcraft may not apply here, but there are some rather large parallels. In the next few days, we’ll be digging deep into the lore of Elder Scrolls to figure out precisely what this might mean

Through a deal facilitated by the support of two Google employees, pro-gaming team and media production company Quantic Gaming has acquired the majority of Team Vile’s StarCraft 2 roster, becoming one of the largest pro-gaming teams in the StarCraft 2 eSports scene.

The acquisition sees Quantic’s roster rise to 17 members, picking up the following Team Vile players and effectively saving a team that has been undergoing major management restructuring:

Illusion, State, Spanishiwa, DdoRo, HasHe, Hawk, SyNc, ChAnCe, Domorin, PsY
Ian Gulliver and Stephen Gunn, two software engineers at Google with a love for gaming and StarCraft, had been involved with Team Vile and the eSports scene for almost a year. After getting to know the Vile players and becoming emotionally invested in their success, they decided to financially support the group in order to further their eSports careers.

In an exclusive interview with Game Front, Ian Gulliver and Stephen Gunn, as well as Quantic eSports Director Garrett Yeager, shared their thoughts on the acquisition and the future of Quantic Gaming.

For years, we’ve heard Doomsayers claim that PC gaming is dying — yet it’s still around. Now, a developer has come out with a counterclaim: console gaming is dying. Firefall creator and former World of Warcraft lead Mark Kern believes that the console business model is dying out.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Kern said:

“It takes billions of dollars of investment to create a console and then you have to milk it for five to seven years in order to get your money back.

“I think the model is broken. You keep making these bigger and bigger bets and what that forces you to do is play it safer and safer. And if you play it safer and safer with your gameplay, people will get tired of the crap you’re serving. When that happens, they get bored and they will leave. And you haven’t fostered any of the middle ground innovation and new ideas that you need to tap into next.

A couple of days ago, level creator Douglas Hoogland released footage of Portal 2′s upcoming free level creator in action, but quickly took it down at Valve’s request. Unfortunately for him, the internet had already gotten a hold of the video and another YouTuber re-uploaded it.

The video showcases the Perpetual Testing Initiative’s basic functions, serving as an introduction to the tool. Check it out:

Attention game music aficionados and diehard Max Payne fans: the Max Payne 3 official soundtrack will be available digitally on May 23rd.

Composed and recorded by LA-based band HEALTH, the soundtrack blends rock, powerful drums and electronic soundscapes, taking influences from Brazil, New York and the themes of the original games.

John Famiglietti of HEALTH said:

“Working on the soundtrack to Max Payne 3 was a great experience. Rockstar gave us the freedom to bring our own sound to Max’s dark story, and we’re really proud of the results.”

Why go with a band instead of a composer? Rockstar soundtrack supervisor Ivan Pavlovich said:

“By using a band instead of a traditional composer, we’ve created a soundtrack that sounds completely unique. HEALTH have created hundreds of hours of amazing music for the game’s score, and distilled it into a devastatingly moody and atmospheric soundtrack album.”

Excerpts from the soundtrack can be heard in the new Max Payne 3 TV spot; have a listen:

Rockstar has released the second video in its two-part series showcasing Max Payne 3′s multiplayer component, which incorporates both storytelling and gunplay into an online experience for up to 16 players.

A Gang Wars mode uses events from the single-player game as narrative starting points for matches with a dynamically shifting storyline based on the outcomes of each round. Players will be able to form grudges and alliances, join Crews, and pull off special abilities called Bursts, which include Bullet Time, of course. Although I’m not sure how bullet time works in multiplayer — when activated, does it turn bullet time on for everyone? If so, doesn’t that defeat the purpose? If not, then… how can they do it without breaking the laws of physics?

The developers of the upcoming MechWarrior Online title have revealed the first in-game images of the Catapult BattleMech.

The Catapult lives up to its name:

“The quintessential indirect-fire ‘mech, the Catapult excels at blanketing a target in LRM fire. Most useful when used in tandem with a spotter, the Catapult can fire on enemies without being in visual contact with them. In addition to its excellent LRM weapons, the Catapult also has jump jets and four medium lasers, allowing it to quickly move out of close combat while offering fairly scary counter-fire.”

Is Microsoft already working on their next console? That’s the claim made by a source speaking to IGN. According to this source, at the Austin branch of Flextronics, manufacturer of the current Xbox 360, production has already begun on the next version of the Xbox, codenamed Durango by Microsoft.

Naturally, this new rumor tracks with news in early 2011 that the company had already begun hiring staffers to work on ‘Next Gen Console Architecture‘, but IGN’s source also provides other very specific details. Apparently, Flextronics started an entirely new testing group, which they made separate from the rest of the company, devoted to the device; this predated production by many months. IGN speculates that it isn’t intended to be the final version of the console, but a dev kit intended for game designers in advance of the new console’s consumer production.

Microsoft, you will recall, straight up ruled out any new console at this year’s E3, so it’s unlikely we’ll see any real news in 2012. A stab in the dark guess says they’ll save the reveal for E3 2013, with a holidays 2013 release window, but obviously this could be completely off base.

In Europe, Bundesliga powerhouses Bayern Munich are set to contest the Champion’s League final. In North and South America, the knockout stages of the Copa Libertadores are just heating up. On the internet, tireless modders are still hard at work on Pro Evolution Soccer 2012, painstakingly updating the game with realistic faces and other tweaks.

Ahead of Konami’s forthcoming DLC, which will give players access to a Copa Libertadores game mode, the PESEdit team have applied a little TLC to the squads involved in that competition, while also adding new player faces and official kits, like the one sported by hatchet-faced Robbie Keane in the picture above. A separate, post-DLC patch will make modded versions of the game compatible with Konami’s changes.

In addition to all the content PESEdit has already created from scratch — the entire Bundesliga, for example — this recent patch adds even more to explore. Certainly enough to tide people over until PES 2013!

The developers of Total War are looking to get Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson to do some motion capture work for the next installment of the series, as revealed by a Twitter exchange.

The official Twitter page for the Total War series asked Notch if he’d be interested in the mocap, to which the famous developer emphatically agreed.

Total War@totalwar 2 May 12
@notch Hey Notch. How would you feel about being mocapped for the next Total War game?
Markus Persson
✔
@notch
@totalwar It's going to feature fat guys sitting around a lot and grunting when they finally do stand up?
2 May 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Total War@totalwar 2 May 12
@notch Hmm... there's probably a game idea in that. Where's @PeterMolydeux when you need him? Anyway, offer stands
Markus Persson
✔
@notch
@totalwar 'cause if it does, I'm DOWN! YEAH!! Assuming schedule works out and all that. When? Where? How?
2 May 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
Creative Assembly’s Craig Laycock later confirmed that the negotiations are underway:

Craig Laycock@craigelaycock
Been talking to @notch today about him hopefully coming over for mocap for the next @totalwar game. Would be sweet
2 May 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
I wonder what role Notch will mocap…

EA recently released an “EA indie bundle” on Steam, stirring up some controversy over its use of the word “indie.” Traditionally, independent games are those produced by small teams without the financial support of a video game publisher. Well, Notch has called out EA on the matter via Twitter, going so far as to state that the publisher is “destroying gaming.”

Notch began by joking about EA’s use of the word “indie:”

Markus Persson
✔
@notch
EA releases an "indie bundle"? That's not how that works, EA. Stop attempting to ruin everything, you bunch of cynical bastards.
3 May 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
He went on to explain that he no longer considers his own studio, Mojang, an independent developer:

According to a tweet by the official Bethesda twitter account, the Skyrim Steam Workshop has seen over 13.6 million downloads since its February 7th release. That averages out to approximately 158,000 downloads a day, which is great news for modders and mod lovers everywhere.

The tweet reads:

BethesdaGameStudios@BGS_Devs
Skyrim Steam Workshop downloads are over 13.6 million. PC mods FTW.
2 May 12 ReplyRetweetFavorite
A couple weeks after the creation kit’s release, we compiled a list of the (then) top 10 Skyrim mods available on the Steam Workshop. If you haven’t, take a gander.

Bethesda recently unveiled its Dawnguard DLC, and though it has said little about it, Bethesda’s Todd Howard previously stated that Skyrim’s DLC will feel like expansion packs. However, Howard has also been on the record as essentially stating that mods are better than DLC, so… make of that what you will.

A PlayStation email survey suggests the possibility exists that Call of Duty Elite and new PS3 releases may be added to PlayStation Plus. The survey asks players how much they would you pay for the subscription-based program if it included Call of Duty: Elite and free, new Blu-ray games.

A number of PlayStation Plus plans are presented in the survey, and players are asked to choose the one they’d most prefer. The survey then modifies subsequent choices in order narrow down a player’s ideal plan. The most significant options include access to Call of Duty Elite and free newly released PS3 games

IGN reached out to Sony, and a spokesperson offered the following response:

“We have nothing specific to announce at this time, but PlayStation Plus continues to delight gamers with free games, huge discounts and exclusive gaming features that can’t be found on other platforms.”

It’s not surprise that Sony remains tight-lipped on the subject. How would you feel about this hypothetical deal?

A couple of talented PC case modders have come together to modify an Antec Lanboy Air chassis into the beaut you see in the picture above, which they dub the Antec “Lanboy Apocalypse.” I may have called it the Pipboy, since it looks to come straight out of a Fallout game.

The modders flipped the Lanboy chassis upside down and relocated the NZXT 850 PSU to the exterior. The waterblock is kept cool with a massive 250mm cooling fan mounted on 8″ x 9.25″ wide radiator, and the fan behind the stainless steel reservoir has 11 switchable LED color modes. They gave the ASUS GTX 560 DirectCUII’s factory fans and shroud a Steampunk makeover, skipping on no detail.

Rockstar is bridging the story gap between Max Payne 2 and Max Payne 3 with a three-part comic book series, and you can get the first issue as a PDF right now, free.

Dubbed “After the Fall,” the series is filled with flashbacks to explain what happened to Max during the 12 years that have elapsed between the latest game and the last entry into the series. It’ll also explain what made Max so jaded (and kinda…chunky) in the intervening decade.

“Written by Dan Houser and Remedy’s Sam Lake, this original Max Payne 3 Comic Book series will delve into Max’s troubled past – exploring the events that occurred in and around both Max Payne and Max Payne 2, leading up to Max Payne 3 while also shedding new light on Max’s early years,” Rockstar writes about the comics.

A new beta client is available for Steam, and it features a handy tool that lets you remotely manage your Steam library, either from a mobile device or another computer.

All you need to do to remotely download games to your computer is leave Steam running on your system, then log into your Steam account through any web browser, anywhere — on a mobile, from a friend’s house, or while logged into your college’s wifi on your laptop.

The beta client’s three changes are:

Remote management of your games library through the web or mobile device
Reduced excessive system memory usage while downloading updates in some cases
Added debug code to diagnose download issues
This should come in handy to grab that free Portal 2 map maker the second it releases…

Now they’ve seized our attention once again with an announcement trailer. They’ve stuck with the formula they used for Skyrim, only this time they’ve used Michael Gambon. Gambon is an outstanding British theater actor who is probably best known for his role as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films. He also has an awesome voice, bringing the same gravitas to this trailer that Max von Sydow brought to the Skyrim one.

Check out the trailer below, and stay tuned for all the news on The Elder Scrolls Online.

In what will surely go down in history as the moment I finally decided life is, indeed, worth living after all, THQ announced yesterday that Saint’s Row: The Third is getting a serious injection of support from THQ with the creation of a true expansion pack – yes, not DLC, a stand alone expansion – that seems both ambitious, and entirely ridiculously silly. In the best possible way.

Saints Row The Third: Enter The Dominatrix will be a true expansion pack, available later this year for Xbox, Playstation and PC for $29.99. Enter The Dominatrix will be a standalone game that picks up where the end of Saint’s Row The Third ends, this time pitting the leader of the Saints against aliens bent on global domination. Yes, space aliens. “For centuries, alien warlord Zinyak has eyed Earth and its precious natural resources and females with a watchful eye,” the press release explains. “As he prepares an armada for invasion, he has only one worry: the Third Street Saints.”

Enter the Dominatrix has the leader of the Saints placed into a Matrix-style virtual reality, which, according to THQ, is mainly an excuse to give players the chance to use tons and tons of super powers. No details about the plot have been provided aside from this summary. By the end of SR3, you have either killed all of your enemies and established the Saints as a global brand/criminal super power, or you have literally declared the city of Steelport to be a sovereign city-state. Presumably, whichever choice you made will be irrelevant to the events of Dominatrix, though it would be cool if they actually write in two slightly different contexts.
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Game Informer took to the Internet today to announce that its cover story this month would be about Elder Scrolls Online, the heretofore unannounced MMO based on Bethesda’s extremely popular RPG series. But it looks like that cover story has already hit the Internet, and with it, a trove of information about the game.

The story is contained in a 19-page PDF that details just when the The Elder Scrolls Online will be set and what will be detailed within the story. Three factions are fighting to control Tamriel: the Nords, Argonians and Dunmer form the northern and eastern territories under their Ebonheart Pact; the Aldmeri Dominion contains the Altmer, Bosmer and Khajiit make up the Aldmeri Dominion in the southeast; and the Bretons, Orcs and Redguard make up the Daggerfall Covenant and occupy the northwest. All three factions are resisting the control of the Imperials and trying to expand their own interests, and that means fighting each other.

From the sounds of things, it’ll be much like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, although the story says that character leveling will be deeper and include more abilities. Expect to spend about 120 hours before hitting max level. You’ll also be able to join every guild, with the Thieves, Fighters and Mages all represented, as well as, I’d assume, the Dark Brotherhood.

While initial plans included an Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 release, Tribes: Ascend will not be seeing a console version. Once a free-to-play model was established, the game was designed around PC play.

Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris told Gamasutra:

“We do not have any plans for Tribes on console at this time. The way it went is that we wanted to do the free-to-play model, and there wasn’t a clear path to that on consoles early on. Based on that, we optimized the game around the strengths of the PC, and specifically a keyboard and mouse control.

“Once we decided it’d only be on the PC, we optimized [gameplay] around speed, a quick turn radius, and things that are optimized for PC game controls.”

Harris did not rule out future f2p console titles:

“We’re still interested in free-to-play on consoles, but at this point, we have nothing specific to Tribes on console. I do expect the consoles will see more and more free-to-play, certainly the new generation, and possibly the existing generation as well.”

Couple this news with a recent quote by a Firefall developer stating, “Consoles, I believe, are dead,” and an increasingly grim portrait is being painted of console gaming.

A forum member from the ValveTime fansite received an email response from Gabe Newell himself confirming that Valve will not be announcing any new titles, but rather showcasing games it’s already revealed.

Newell said:

“We are not announcing anything at E3. Really. We are not announcing Half-Life 3 or Portal 3 or Left 4 Dead 3. We are going to be showing stuff everyone already knows about (CS:Go, Dota 2, 10′ UI, …)”

The legitimacy of this email comes into question, and while a second email screenshot from a third party lends credibility to the claim that this message was in fact from Newell, we have yet to receive official confirmation from Valve. Nonetheless, this news is unsurprising, if a little disappointing.

Battlefield 1942: Forgotten Hope Secret Weapons got his own European Wikipedia!
The FHSW Europe group, a partner of the Japanese FHSW development team, launch - made by the fans - a Wikipedia for Forgotten Hope Secret Weapons.

Forgotten Hope Secret Weapon is a Japanese Modmod for Forgotten Hope, a Battlefield 1942 Modification, predecessor of Forgotten Hope 2 for Battlefield 2. It started as a small Minimod for Forgotten Hope. The original intention was to bring some crazy but really planned weapons to FH like the Ratte Tank.

However after 3 years of development, Forgotten Hope Secret Weapons became the biggest mod for Battlefield 1942 with dozens of improvements for the 'old' FH v0.7. FHSW gives you more than 500 new equipments, new physics (bouncing bullets and tow-able artillery), more maps and even more map improvements/-changes on FHmaps and the new nation Hungary.

The main theme of the mod is World War II. Although the Second World War ended in 1945 after the Japanese surrender, FHSW also focuses on fictional battles after the surrender such like Operation Coronet and The Forgotten Jungle.

The purpose of Wikipedia, are show all vehicles, weapons and maps from the mod on the internet with the data.

You can always join the Wikipedia and FHSW!!! Soon, a new version is be available! Version 0,5 with new crazy stuff such like the American heavy T29 tank, the Sovjet Zveno Project, the British de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito fighter, the Japanese Type 5 15 cm SPG Ho-Chi and the German Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus tank!

The trailer sets about a new focus on warfare with us delving into the future, with upgraded weapons, aircraft, tanks and all other things like optics you'll be stepping into a completely different world than what you encountered in Black Ops 1.

Many of you did not buy Black Ops 1 or even MW3 for that matter, this game does look like a combination of BO1, Mass Effect 3 and Battlefield 3 but that can only make an even better game than what Treyarch achieved before, so give the trailer a watch and keep in tune with the updates that we'll be sending your way at CoDFiles and hopefully you'll be joining us in the future revolution of warfare that Black Ops 2 will bring!

Read: Black Ops 2 Reveal Trailer
More Call of Duty News: FileFront's Call of Duty FilesGrand Theft Auto San Andreas: Analyst Pegs GTA V For October
Grand Theft Auto V is definitely coming October 23; not only that, but Rockstar Games will likely make the announcement the day before E3 2012, and still roll like a Boss and not make even a cursory appearance at this yearâ€™s trade show.

Did I grab your attention? Good, because none of that has any basis in fact. They are the predictions of Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, who made them during a GTTV announcement of Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale. â€œTheyâ€™ve outgrown the show. I think theyâ€™re way too cool to go,â€ he said, regarding his belief that Rockstar wonâ€™t be at E3. â€œMy read on those guys is they like stealing the thunder from everything else. So if I had to bet, Iâ€™d say youâ€™d get an announcement on GTA V the day before E3 starts, thatâ€™d be Monday, June 4. they donâ€™t show up and thatâ€™s all anybody can do is talk about GTA V at the show .â€ He then said that Rockstar will be releasing the game October 23, and that he doesnâ€™t think they care about BioShock Infinite. Soâ€¦ yeah, heâ€™s just basically talking a lot.

Pachterâ€™s bloviating might be grounded in reality, kind of. Recently, a Rockstar employeeâ€™s CV listed October, 2012 as the gameâ€™s release window (before being removed, of course). But are we really supposed to believe they donâ€™t care about BioShock Infinite? I get the need to have something to say about GTA V; in the nearly 6 months since the first official announcement, Rockstar has been ridiculously tight-lipped about it. Aside from that first trailer and initial PR statements, they have maddeningly refused to confirm any further details about what is sure to be the best selling game of its year. In the vacuum, our readers wondered if the trailer contained an easter egg suggesting a May, 2012 release date, and analysts have generally preferred to predict a 2013 release date.

Yes, Rockstar needs to throw us all a bone, and fast. I hope we hear something soon. But Iâ€™m getting a bit tired of speculation masquerading as analysis (except from Game Front readers, who are typically pretty good at it). While we wait for Rockstar to decide whether or not to get off the pot, letâ€™s leave the speculation to the experts.

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